Agreed. WIA (BOA II) has a much leaner interface, and the recruitment is a lot easier to learn (as in, there really isn't any in WIA). ACW really ups the scale of operations, logistics, and the struggles of high command. Having said that, there's a reason why ACW is still AGEOD's most popular game, it's great and not to be missed. But its learning curve is a bit higher. Go with BOA II first.

I have played the tutorial from the demo and started the second scenario,"The whites of their eyes" from the American side and I will play it again from the British side.

I loved it and decided to purchase the game and I started to download it right now. It seems that the learning curve is pretty stiff,so can you please tell me the names of the scenarios I should start to play first (maybe the smaller scenarios?) or give me any advice about what to do and not to do for learning the game's mechanics or maybe point me to relevant forum's threads.

By the way, I guess that the game I am downloading is already patched, right?